Life Goes On
by A. E. Stover
Summary: The first to receive the dreams was Sakura. Sasuke received them second. Naruto remained oblivious.


They stood before the Academy. It was the evening before graduation. Sundown bathed the village in soft hues. Shadows stretched, all spindly and crooked on the street. Everyone had already gone home; the village was emptying for the night, save for the late-night pubs and restaurants. Still, they stood in front of the Academy, sending it distant, faraway looks touched slightly with fear and uncertainty.

"I don't get it."

There was a boy on a wooden swing. He kicked at the ground, rocking himself forward and back. He was wearing a black shirt and rumpled, orange pants. His face, scarred on each cheek, was fighting to choose between a hardened glare and a sullen stare.

"Is… Is this real?"

The whisper was almost inaudible. It was colored with disbelief. A silent plea for reason, for realism, to be recovered went unheard.

A girl couldn't stay still. Her hands kept reaching up to her hair. Fingers threading through soft strands kept freezing midway, as if shocked to feel that there was hair that flowed past her chin, her shoulders.

"It's real."

The boy was eerily calm. He stared openly at the building, his face left no hint of thought or feeling. It was utterly blank. Only his shoulders, rigid and stiff, and the barely-there clenching of his hand at his waist showed off his unease. Regardless, his companions knew; there was a storm brewing inside his heart.

"I don't get this." The boy on the swing said it again. Once silent, his lips flattened to a single line, eyes burning darkly. "I don't get this at all! Is this a fucking joke?"

Beside him, both the girl and the boy looked to each other for a brief moment. Then the girl looked down at the boy on the swing. "We'll find out what's going on."

The boy on the swing planted his feet firmly on the soil beneath him. His fists squeezed the swing rope, turning his knuckles white. "Damn straight," he scathed.

The girl fell silent. She clasped her hands behind her, wringing her fingers and biting the inside of her cheek.

"It's nice."

The confession startled them. Both the girl and the boy on the swing turned to their still-calm companion.

He didn't turn to face them. His eyes soaked in the sight of the Academy building instead. His shoulders, still straight, were more relaxed. His hands had dropped to his sides.

"You," the boy on the swing hissed, "Don't go falling for this — this illusion! You're better than that!"

The calm boy gave a brief side-eye. The slightest frown appeared for just a second. "You should be able to feel it by now. You too, Sakura."

The girl turned sharply away. She unknotted her fingers and ran them stiffly down the front of her red cheong-sam. "Sasuke-kun's right," she said at last. "This… This isn't genjutsu."

The boy on the swing shot up. "Then what the hell is this?! Don't tell me this is… That this is… This is bullshit! I can't believe you two would — !"

"Stop shouting," the boy named Sasuke said.

"Then would someone just tell me what this is?! I don't — I don't get this at all! And I — I don't — "

The girl reached out with a gentle hand. "Naruto, calm down. We don't want to attract attention."

The boy, 'Naruto,' dropped to the floor, hands clenching in his hair and eyes squeezing painfully shut. "I don't… I don't understand… Why do we have these… dreams? I don't…"

The girl, 'Sakura,' looked to Sasuke. There was a visible frown on his face, and Sakura could feel the uneasiness rolling off of him. They gathered close to Naruto, Sasuke sitting on the grass beside him while Sakura sat in front of him. She ran her fingers through Naruto's hair, patted his shaking shoulders. They pretended not to notice his crying, his hiccups, and his heavy, hitched breathing.

The first to receive the dreams was Sakura. She'd closed herself off for some time, as the border between the past and the present blurred together to create a single, disorienting reality. She still had bouts of venturing far away, seeing the future within those around her, seeing their slack, dead faces instead of their vibrant, living ones.

Sasuke received them second. His attendance at the Academy suffered, as did his ranking. He didn't care. It hadn't mattered. Nothing mattered. Everything he'd been told was a lie and a truth all wrapped in one. It took two years for him to compartmentalize everything neatly again, and another year to accept all of it, the past and the present, as one entity. The first thing that changed were the night terrors. They dulled rapidly. Bodily, the memories were only 4 years old; mentally, the memories had been seeded eight decades ago. And he knew the truth.

Naruto remained oblivious. Sasuke approached him first. Then he approached Sakura. Ironically, he was the one that brought them together. He fumbled with what words to share with them, struggled with how they triggered different emotions from his dual lives. But he managed. _They_ managed.

Sakura was patient. Naruto was ecstatic and blissfully unaware. Sasuke tolerated, accepted, and grew.

Naruto received the memories last. The demon fox finally swirled into his subconscious, breaking hibernation with dreams from an eternity ago. The fox had been aware; the child had been asleep. And now that both were awake, a fissure opened up and out spewed every moment, every feeling, and every dream that the Naruto of old had had.

So, on the evening before graduation, they stood together — _really_ together — before the Academy building to wonder the HOW and the WHY.

Slowly, he calmed down. Whimpers died in the collar of Sakura's cheong-sam. His fingers gripped tightly onto the sleeve of Sasuke's shirt. The loud wangs of summer cicadas covered up the lingering hiccups and wet sniffling. Sakura's hand rested on Naruto's back, the other occasionally weaving through Naruto's hair. Sasuke just sat beside them, quiet and unmoving.

"You didn't cut your hair."

Sakura brought her fingers to her own hair. Her lips twisted with an odd sort of smile. "I didn't."

"Are you gonna cut it again?"

Again. The past and present, merging into one. It's the little things that change. Small enough to slip past their radar. But it's tricky; the grains of sand that slip through time turn into chunked slabs once they pass.

 _Ino, are you training with your dad again this weekend?_ She never shared that she'd been training on the weekend.

 _I hope this doesn't make me slip during the shuriken toss again._ They hadn't begun shuriken training yet.

 _Ugh, I hate diplomacy festivals. The fireworks always keep me awake._ Fireworks weren't added to the festival until much, much later.

She lets it slide; it's only them here, and there'll be another time to take care of that.

"Maybe," she said. "I don't know."

Naruto straightened up. His eyes were moist and puffy, rimmed with red. HIs cheeks damp and tear-stained. There was a line across his cheek from where Sakura's collar had pressed against it for some time. Naruto rubbed a hand along it in silence. Then, with a grunt and a grimace, he repositioned his legs until he was sitting cross-legged. "I can't feel my legs," he mumbled.

"You were kneeling for an hour."

Naruto's eyes flicked first to Sasuke, then to the sky above. The orange hues had faded, and now the village was painted in blues. "Oh," he said, staring up at the sky. The stars were starting to shine. Streetlights had lit up, and the Academy was now dark save for the spot below the yellow light above the door. Moths flickers around it, tiny wings flapping shadows across their young, childish faces.

"Hey," Naruto said suddenly, turning to Sasuke. "Are you…" He paused. Uncertainty clouded his eyes. He ran a tongue over his lips and tried again. "You won't leave this time… Right?"

Sasuke's eyes actually widened, even if by only a fraction of an inch. He blinked, staring at Naruto and then at Sakura. After a second, he scowled deeply and crossed his arms over his knees.

"You're an idiot," he groused, dropping his chin into his arms.

Sakura and Naruto shared a quick look. A grin spread slowly on Naruto's face. A childish giggle bubbled past his lips. Naruto tucked his chin in, grinning and laughing through his teeth.

Sasuke shoved him, brow drawn tight with creases. "What the hell're you laughing about now?"

Naruto teetered backwards from the shove. He laughed, head hanging back freely, and cackled with glee as he toppled onto the ground.

Sakura thumped her hand on Naruto's knee. "Shhhh!" She pressed a finger to her lips, shooting Naruto a glare. "You're too loud! It's night!"

Naruto flopped his arms up over his head, his usual grin plastered on his face. "Who cares?! It's just us three out here!"

Just us three. It was just them three, really them, back together now. Past and present. They were here now.

Sakura let Naruto laugh. Sasuke pretended to be cross. And Naruto grinned.

Soon, the stars shone like gems in the sky. They scattered in dazzling array above their heads, painting an image of a bright summer night. As bright as their future, foretold and revealed in a series of unexplained dreams. But even the brightest night sky was just that-a night sky; a collection of twinkling lights pinned to a backdrop of dark, murky ink.

"The ten-tails is sealed up there."

Sasuke turned back to them, eyes darker in the night. "Aah."

Naruto stared up quietly. His brilliant blue eyes, subdued in the darkness, narrowed at the sight of the full moon up above. "We should do something. Before everything happens. Before anyone…" His voice trailed off, lips still parted. He left the unspoken words alone.

Sasuke scoffed. "Do what? We haven't even graduated yet."

Naruto sat up, eyes blazing again. "We're graduating tomorrow! We can — "

"We can't do anything yet," Sakura reasoned gently. "We… We have the knowledge. But our bodies don't have the experience. We're still… We're still kids."

Naruto's face twisted something fierce. "There's gotta be something," he insisted, pounding the ground. "We can't just sit here and let everything happen again! We — We gotta tell somebody!"

"And have the village thinking we're raving mad?" Sasuke's tone was bitter. "Sakura's right. As we are, we can't do anything. I can't even make a regular Chidori." Scowling, he raised his hand up in front of them. Chakra sparked once, twice, and then — Sasuke hissed, shaking his hand when the sparks danced back through his skin and into his system. There were red, bloody splotches on his hand and down the length of his arm. They were all in varying stages of recovery.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura scolded, scooting over with a stern look. "You promised you wouldn't practice it until later!"

Sasuke didn't reply, just rolling his eyes childishly and letting Sakura fret over his mild burns. Sakura raised a chakra-coated hand to Sasuke's arm. Her brow furrowed intensely and a bead of sweat trickled down the side of her face. Ten long minutes later, and she had only managed to lessen the irritation of burn. At least it was no longer bright red.

Sakura sighed, sliding the red ribbon out of her hair and using it instead to tie her hair into a long ponytail. "It's late. We should go home."

Sasuke rose to his feet, dusting off his pants. "We'll meet here, after the ceremony."

Naruto sat up, eyes bright. "Yeah! Last one here's gotta swallow a whole spoonful of wasabi!"

"Nobody's swallowing anything," Sakura snapped, pulling on the front of Naruto's collar. "Ah! G-Good night, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted before Sasuke had gone too far off.

Sasuke walked until the fork in the path and shot up to a rooftop. From there, he was a shadowed blur, rushing away home.

"That jerk doesn't know how to say bye. He even died without any of us knowing."

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed, sending him a harsh glare.

"What?! It's just us! It doesn't matter!"

A frown appeared on Sakura's face. She opened her mouth but quickly shook her head and turned away. "Just… Just be careful. People will ask questions."

"There's nobody here," Naruto insisted, getting up and patting his behind.

Sakura just gave him a look.

"I'm going home. I didn't even get to eat because of that — that thing that happened. Is that gonna happen a lot?"

Sakura frowned again. "They'll come and go. That's why you need to be careful. Sometimes the memories… You get confused with what you're doing. Just… Be careful."

The beginnings of a temper tantrum scrunched Naruto's face into an unsightly scowl. With a slow blink, his face unfolded until only his brow was furrowed. He seemed to be staring at a spot past them.

Unease crept coldly into her bloodstream. Sakura chanced a peek over her shoulder. Nothing. She turned back. "What is it?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed, he cocked his head. Then he blinked and shook his head again. "Nothing. I just… I just remembered something important. I'll see you tomorrow."

Sakura rose to her feet. "Naruto, wait — !"

She wasn't fast enough to stop him; Naruto disappeared in a flicker of movement far too advanced for his age. She suppressed a curse. Then cursed again because it had taken her months to get her speed back to how it was once before — how it was for the other Sakura, that is. It wasn't fair that Naruto could pull a move like that within minutes of the first "awakening," as she liked to call it (it lent some legitimacy to the event).

There was nothing she could do. Sasuke had already gone home, and Naruto was long gone. All that she could do now was go home. She turned toward the path that lead to the main road. For the first time that evening, she noticed just how dark it had gotten. And how utterly alone she was. Sakura grit her teeth.

Almost a hundred years of experience, and none of it told them how wrong it was to make a lady walk home alone in the dark. What if something happened? What if there was a psycho on the loose?

She'd crush their trachea, that's for sure. But still.

"I'll show them not to leave me behind again. Shannaro!"


End file.
